doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Bismuth velocity

Fella, I have looked & looked to no avail for my kit for that specific black powder substitute. I seem to recall that I took a 16 gauge shotcup & added black powder substitute and monitored it with a chrony until I achieved my target velocity. Then I took a set of dikes and cut the shot cup off & then used use it to measure the powder. Did not log any written data. I had a lb or 2 of the black powder substitute and when I had ignited all that lot I couldn't find the same so I was going to switch to black powder or another substitute & repeat the process. Maybe thought I would remember it but of course that was a mistake. I will keep looking though.

Too, does anyone think the speed of sound has any bearing on the target velocity or is there any need to approach or exceed the speed of sound. Or is it just happenstance?

Cheers,

Raimey
rse

Too I remember how I began. An older fella when I was a kid told me if I were even in a pinch in loading a muzzle-loader pistol or rifle to put the ball in my hand & cover it with powder. So I took a lead ball near the diameter for a 16 bore & covered it. When I was a kid for Christmas my relatives would buy me those CVA percussion kits where you could assemble components to make a pistol or rifle. I shot a lot of ball as a kid. I would get them together & then @ family reunions my Dad's uncles would show me how to shoot pie plates @ 50 - 60 yards or a bit more. Almost all of them had marksman badges from the War/military service. Too, they could strike matches with a 0.22" rifle.

Cheers,

Raimey
rse

Raimey I believe the fact that 1200 fps and sonic are fairly close together is just coincidence.

It's a point of diminishing returns where much more velocity than that just makes recoil and noise and not much decreased time of flight or increase in energy at the target, at least with lead.

With non-tox that's less dense than lead, more MV is about all you can do to slightly improve things.

You can't fool mother nature. Round (or nearly round) projectiles are going to slow down in a big hurry since drag is a square function of velocity.

!200 fps is just a sweet spot.

Speed of sound is about 1125fps at sea level.

Thanks fellas. I assume the velocity is @ 68�F too.


Cheers,

Raimey
rse

There is one reason why you may want to keep velocity down just a little I don't know if this is still a factor but in the early days of Bi loads, pellets would fragment, presumably on impact (with bone?) and presumably faster velocities would cause more of that. Fractured pellets do not penetrate much further of course.

Last year, I found two fragmented pellets (#5) in a mallard shot at about 30 yds, maybe a little less. Those are the only two pellets I have ever seen. One pellet was lodged in the ball ball of the humerus and the other had penetrated the sternum's keel. I do not know what the velocity was, but I don't get too carried away with fps stats, so probably not more than 1250. Otherwise, I've never seen a fractured pellet in any bird. I have not been shooting a lot of waterfowl until last year however. Pheasants have much lighter bones.

And many of those Pheasant shots are fundament shots.


Cheers,

Raimey
rse

fundament?

You should know... it's that anatomical place where your head is.

Roster compared the penetration of steel vs lead when he ran his steel shot tests on pheasants. He found much more feather balling with steel pellets on pheasants than he had anticipated. One reason for that may be that pheasants are much more likely to be shot going away, while waterfowl are more likely to be shot as crossers or incomers. As anyone who has shot many pheasants will have observed, you can shoot a rooster in the ass and you'll get a very impressive cloud of feathers . . . and the bird will keep on flying.